Performance Archive

The performance archive documents the performance and adaptation of Jonson’s plays
down to the present. It consists of a complete calendar of all known revivals and
numerous adaptations on film, TV, and radio; individual essays on each play for which
a stage history can be written; an essay discussing several key adaptations; and a
selection of images from productions, primarily drawn from the archives of the Royal
Shakespeare Company. Show more

The calendar below is a listing of amateur and professional productions of Ben Jonson's plays
and their adaptations from the earliest performances to the present. ‘Adaptation’ has
been taken to mean any production that makes substantial alterations to an original
Jonson play-text (as it exists in the folios of 1616 or 1640-41), or that uses a play by
Jonson as a jumping-off point for a new work. It does not include productions that make
occasional cuts and modernisations, or that relocate the action to a more recent setting
leaving the text largely intact.

Inevitably, the listings for the period down to 1800 depend on information derived from
The London Stage 1660-1800, eds. W. Van Lennep, E. L. Avery, A. H.
Scouten, G. W. Stone, and C. B. Hogan (11 vols., 1960-79, Carbondale, IL). They also
include numerous references to The London Stage. We are very grateful
to the publishers for permission to draw on this data. With respect to modern and
amateur productions, some of the information has come by word-of-mouth and is therefore
difficult to verify. Corrections and updates are welcome, and can be directed to eugene.giddens@anglia.ac.uk.

Karen Britland is responsible for the listings down to 1776, Eugene Giddens for the
listings from 1776 to the present, and Nick Tanner is responsible for the listings of
twentieth- and twenty-first century adaptations. The editors are grateful to Karin
Brown, Librarian of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, for making her
data on recent Jonson revivals available to us. Show less